— It’s not Ottawa’s role to challenge a new Quebec law that forbids people from receiving government services with their faces covered, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday during a visit to the province. Trudeau added, however, he believes the Charter of Rights and Freedoms applies to everyone and that he will defend that principle. “It’s not up to the federal government to challenge this,” he said about Bill 62, which is seen by many as targeting Muslim women who wear the niqab or the burka. “In Quebec and Canada we are not necessarily used to seeing a woman with a veil,” Trudeau told reporters. “But if you want to prevent women from being forced to wear a veil, maybe you don’t want to be a society that forces women not to wear a veil.”

Source: National Post October 19, 2017 20:26 UTC